I had voluntarily declared my assets: Shivaraj

BANGALORE: “In 1982, when I was practising as a lawyer at the High Court of Karnataka, I purchased a small site at Vasanthanagar, Bangalore, from a private individual and built my residence. The same was neither allotted by the Governor nor by any society.”“In 1994, while I was a Judge of the High Court I was allotted a site in the Judicial Layout by the Karnataka Judicial Department Employees House Building Cooperative Society along with several other judges and employees. This allotment in favour of judges was challenged in a writ petition before the High Court of Karnataka and was dismissed. Further, it was challenged before the Supreme Court and was dismissed.”“In 2006, after my retirement as a Judge of the Supreme Court, my wife purchased a site at Nagavara Layout formed by VHB Co-operative Society Ltd, under a registered sale deed. In this regard it may be relevant to note that, way back in 1982, her brother Shivaraj had become a member of the said society and he had also paid certain amount towards allotment of a site in a layout to be formed by the Society. However, despite 20 years later, the Society on account of various reasons had failed to form a layout and allot sites to its members. In view of this, he sought a refund of the amount. It is gathered from the Society that several others out of nearly 2,700 members had also sought for refund.”“It is also informed that the Society had borrowed money from the bank and defaulted in repayment. Consequently the society’s property/ land was sought to be attached.  With this background, members feared that the land would be lost and also they may not get a refund; they through the society represented to the government seeking permission to sell sites on an outright sale basis, so as to facilitate repayment to the bank. Thereafter when sites were offered to outright sale basis, as my wife’s brother by then had invested in an apartment, he transferred his membership to her and she was made an associate member and and outright sale deed was executed in her favour.”“It is also necessary to note that she did not file any affidavit making any false declaration at any point hence there has never been any misrepresentation. Sale being on outright basis, there was absolutely no restriction for the purchase. All the purchases have been through legitimate funds generated and are accounted for.”“On assuming office, I voluntarily declared my assets reflecting my sites. An issue was sought to be raised without any justification.”“Taking into account the position I held, which would retract from my functioning and my moral authority to deal with the men and matter,  I asked  my wife to surrender the site forthwith, without getting into the legality of it. She wrote a letter to the society on Sept 14 to surrender the site.”